the musings of a mad old bloke about his HO scale model Railway. Set in the late 60s- early 70s with close enough rolling stock and locos. Dont bother counting my rivets :)

Tuesday, 21 April 2015

BIG Changes

Well, seeing it's been nearly 12 months since my last update, I thought I had better get off my backside and fill you all in. I decided some time ago to change the layout design and a shift of locations to an imaginary Island called "KANAGRA" It lies just off the South Australian mainland adjacent to Goolwa and the Coorong coast stretching some 280 miles ( 430 KM) north south and sort of triangular shaped being a narrow triangle. It has a decent harbour at the top (Port Selby) and another at the Bottom called Vaneed. I attach a History as an attachment. As I am moving house and Shrike Models is finally getting off to getting stuff here , I have put all else on hold but as soon as the move is over and all gets settled I will begin doing my Layout, which will encompass just a part of the line.HERE IS THE HISTORY

The History of Kanagra Island

It is believed that the island came into existence about 900
AD. About this time 3 huge meteors hit
South Australia with major earthquakes, the largest forming the huge lake 29
miles north of the Murray river near Loxton and 2 smaller ones hitting the
ocean south of what is now Victor Harbour. This caused a massive land shift
upwards forming the Island some 280 miles north to south and about 4 miles
across at the north end, widening to 65 miles across at the mid South.There is
evidence from the Fleurenaux Peninsula Aboriginal tribes of the major upheaval
in their legends and they considered Kanagra Island to be an evil place.

When the first British arrived in 1834, they found a pale
skin tribe in the area around Gills and Jagandulcie that spoke a sort of Dutch
language and used , what they called Ferrestone, as fire. This Ferrestone was
actually Black coal! There were only about 3 to 400 in the tribe and their
legends say that some women were kidnapped but the Dutch and they settled on
the island. This would most likely be
the Able Tasman or Mahogany ship crews.

As this was officially a part of South Australia, there was
mainly English, Scotts and Irish settlement at first, but in 1867 a ship of
Swedish and Danish settlers arrived, all being Lutheran and similar style
people. The first main settlements were around Port Selby and near what is now
Selby plus at the lower point of the island around Vaneed.

The population in 1869 was around 4,000 including the
Jagandulsi tribe. The SA government realising how valuable the Coal was decided
to build a railway from the Port Selby to Jagandulcie and work began on 18th
June 1870. This line was easy grades at first but the hills near Jagandulcie,
meant a hard slog up a 1 in 48 grade, at that stage the hardest grade in S.A.
The line opened in 1874 with 4 locomotives in line haul and one for shunting at
the port. This was connected to the SAR
at Goolwa from 1885, with only 6 miles (10 KM.) of sea crossing via a ferry.

As the population increased, there were new villages and
areas populated by mainly Scandinavian and Scottish migrants and by 1890 there
were nearly 80,000 people on the island. It was a favourite place to escape the
summer heat, being about 5 to 8 degrees cooler overall than Adelaide. Hotels
sprang up along the coastal areas and Vaneed, Zumsteig and Barnett Bay were
very popular vacation spots. The SAR extended the railway as far as Vaneed, 197
miles south of Selby, by 1896 as well as a northern line 26 miles from Selby to
Lagoda, on the northern end of the island, opposite the North Coorong area on
the mainland. More migration in the late 19th century saw the first
post Federation Census as being 136, 418, a huge percentage of the South
Australian population at the time. Selby became the capitol and largest city
having in 1909 34, 500 residents and the SAR actually double tracked the line
from Port Selby to Gills in 1911.

After World War 1 more European migrants, coming from
Austria, Germany Holland and Belgium as well as Britain and Russia arrived and
by 1929 the population had increased to 275,000. Then during the depression,
migration slowed to less than 500 per year.

Kananga grows many fruits and vegetables not easily grown in
the rest of South Australia, including Greengages, Cucumbers, Lettuce, Celery,
Peas, Pomegranates, Gooseberries and cool weather grapes. Also there is not
much wheat grown but a lot of Corn, potatoes, Oats and Barley. There are
cattle, sheep, Pigs and Goats as well, thus giving a nicely managed food
source. Oil was found near Vaneed and off shore in 1935 and a refinery was
established there in 1938. This made the economy boom and before World War 2, a
petition to succeed from South Australia was begun. The war stopped any
proceedings and it was not brought up again till about 1960.

The first Coal mine was started by George Halsey at Jagandulcie
in 1860 and is still going today. More coal was discovered in 1870 and mines
were established at Ashmore, Sleeman and Kavinka on the branch line from
Beanula to Taschig. These are worked as a private concern with their own locos
and rolling stock, as is the Halsey mine.

More coal is mined at Hinnakka using KR locos and rolling
stock to take it to either Port Selby or Jinkarra Power station.

A daily Oil train runs from Vaneed refinery to Lagoda ,
dropping various company tank cars at various locations. There are 3 Air
conditioned north- south passenger trains daily from Vaneed to Port Selby as
well as 2 others from Selby to Lagoda, these as well as the branch line
services are well patronised and the speed is gradually being increased, to
70MPH and 75 MPH ( 115KMH and 125KMH), were possible. Mainlines are all
continuous welded rail mainly 100 Lbs or 50KG with a small section of 60KG rail
. the Main line is double track, then CTC from Gills to Vaneed, the north line
and branches are worked by train order.

On the 1st of July 1966, Kanagra succeeded from
South Australia, becoming the 7th State of Australia. The SAR handed
over 7 930 class, 5 Rx class, 6 830 class and 4 740 class locos, as well as 800
freight cars and 36 passenger cars. 6 300 and 2 400 class DPMs with 3 860 class
cars were also built in the early 1960s purely for Selby suburban service. The
new Kanagra Railway (KR) bought 2 RDC2 and 1 RDC1 from various US railways in
1967 to serve the 2 branch lines etc. A small number of VR 4 wheel stock was
also acquired and this made the KR a nice profitable railway, which it still
is. 1970 saw 20 US type Flat stake cars for timber traffic and 36 new (US 70
ton) Hoppers similar to the SAR H type built, and as time progressed more
modern types arrived.

1974 saw the population hit 450,000 total with Selby and
district having 150,000, Vaneed 45000, Beyanula 35,000 Lagoda 22,000 and
Taschig 20,000.

About Me

I am a widower, raising my son Ashton at home and retired from 37 years on the footplate. I have modelled for about 30 years and am a member of the NMRA and Hills Model Railway Society. currently Vice President of HMRS.
I am also BBIC of AREDORRA, a group for professional Rail people.
I am keen on modelling South Australian Railways in the pre ANR days and also some Victorian as "Run Thru" operations. I am often told I am totally Mad and often agree!
Jesus is the lord of my life :)